


en l'absence d'ailes

by orphan_account



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, all she wants to do is not almost accidentally kill ONE ladybug, in which tikki fucks up and adrien has to deal with it, is that too much to ask, poor Tikki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 05:00:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6360478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrien wanted to find out the lady behind the mask, but not like this. He almost wishes it hadn't happened. Almost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	en l'absence d'ailes

One spot. She’s running, running as fast and as hard as she can over the rooftops to find somewhere to change back. The ache in her feet only gets stronger with every step, every tiny fall she takes before landing on the next building. She makes a mental note to, if ever given the opportunity, replace the stiff and unyielding concrete with something softer, like polypropylene. Trampoline-like rooftops would be much more fun to jump on, anyway. If she hadn't been in such a time-sensitive predicament, she definitely would have taken a moment to laugh at the thought. Chat would love her idea.

Ladybug can almost hear Tikki crying out in her ear, knowing that she’s growing too weak to keep running the miraculous. When her final spot disappears, she’s about to dip into an alley. It's a convenient, secluded spot she's used to conceal her transformations more times than she could remember. She would be safe here. Probably. A hurried hand swings her yo-yo out to a gutter, a blur of red and black zooming from the tips of her fingers all the way to the other side, gripping the weak steel. Ladybug pulls the string taut, but as she leaps from the top of the roof, her weapon disappears. A faint white glow runs along the length of Ladybug's body as Tikki releases her transformation, under the impression that they were safe. Marinette finds herself falling.

She lands first, her right arm outstretched in a vain attempt to cushion the fall. Fortunately, human instinct had prevailed and she had protected her head from most of the impact, which... frankly, wasn't that bad to start, considering she had landed on someone's discarded trash bag. Even if a bag of garbage wasn't high on her "Things to Fall On" list, it was better than the alternative: pavement. Marinette's limp form rolls from the bag onto the muddy ground, facing the midnight blue of the sky. Tikki appears next, a tiny streak of red zooming up from her ear, and lands on the soft expanse of Marinette’s stomach. She's weak and weary and exhausted, but her gentle groans and hungry pleading don't seem to make her chosen rise. The kwami flitters up, already massive eyes growing wider as she realizes her Ladybug is unconscious. Panic sets in, but a few thousand years of experience in matters like these gives her just the calm she needs. She climbs up to the front of Marinette's shoulder, reaching up to tap her cheek.

"Marinette," she starts, "you've got to get a move on! You'll catch a cold if you stay out here too long. Being Ladybug doesn't make you immune to the common cold, you know." Marinette doesn't respond. Tikki tries once more, this time tugging on her charge's lower lip, tiny voice calling out a strangled "Marinette!" as the pulls, but nothing happens. The kwami mutters an ancient curse under her breath as she floats up higher, using her remaining strength to send a message to her partner.

 _Plagg, Ladybug's down. Off of Quai d'Orsay and Rue Surcouf, west side of Predin Brat building. Hurry._ She can only hope he gets the message.

* * *

"Plagg, for the thousandth time, I'm not going to keep camembert in my pocket for you without it being in some sort of container. I can deal with smelling like cheese, but my father would _kill_ me if any of it got on my clothes."

"Adrien, you don't understand! What if there was some sort of emergency and the lid got stuck? Every second counts when the fate of Paris is on the li-" Plagg freezes mid-sentence, hovering in place in front of Adrien.

"What?" Adrien starts, hands on his hips. "You get lost up in there again?" He reaches out to tap the side of his kwami's head, but his finger is swatted away.

"Kid, you know where Predin Brat is?"

Adrien pauses, eyes narrowing at the floating feline. "Yeah, it's a law firm down the street from here. Nothing you'd be interested in, unless you've got something you'd like to share with me?"

"Transform," Plagg orders, scarfing the last bite of camembert down and zooming towards his hand. Adrien tries to question it, but the second he opens his mouth, Plagg shoots him a glare. Better not question it.

"Plagg, _transforme moi!_ "

* * *

It takes far too long for Chat to arrive, but Tikki assumes it's only because the boy behind the mask doesn't understand the severity of the situation. She can tell he spots her first, cocking his head to the side in confusion, but she doesn't have the time for a formal introduction. Plagg drops the transformation, rushing to her side and speaking in a language Adrien has never heard, nor can translate a single word of. He isn't even sure if it's _language_ , per se; all he hears is stressed and enunciated clicking and chirping. Can humans even make those noises? He's stirred from his thoughts when he realizes they've stopped, and are looking directly at him. He clears his throat.

"So, should I leave the two of you alo-" he stops when he notices a hand on the ground up ahead, illuminated by a thin strip of moonlight. His head whips back up to the two kwami, an expression of alarm painted on his face. "What's going on?"

Tikki flies forward, nervously looking back at Marinette. Adrien notes that she has a distinct sense of guilt on her face, and he figures she must have been somewhat at fault. "She's fine for now, just a little bit... unconscious. She needs medical attention, and I can't very well get her there on my own, and..." Her attention turns back to Adrien.

The cogs in his head start turning, and he figures out what exactly is going on. Adrien curses, rushing over to where his lady is laying. She’s cold. It’s the first thing he notices when he reaches out to touch her, a gloveless hand pressing against the soft cream of her cheek. It’s nearly pitch black in the alley by now (not that it wasn't before, but being Chat Noir had the perk of night vision), and what he can see of her face is mostly obstructed by shadow. He notices the blood on her lips, though, and with the help of another sliver of moonlight, the delicate dusting of freckles along the bridge of her nose and her cheekbones. Another thoughtless _fuck_ escapes his lips, confirming his assumptions when his eyes travel down her body, from the gentle arch of her brow to the tips of her bare toes. Where did her shoes go? She must’ve been in a hurry when she transformed earlier in the night. Adrien looks back at Tikki and Plagg, as if he were affirming that yes, he was supposed to be the one to take her and find help. They nod.

He isn’t as strong in his civilian form as he is when he’s Chat Noir, but that doesn’t mean anything when he lifts the tiny girl up into his arms and bolts towards the street faster than Chat ever could. It's weird, he thinks, how the human body works when the girl you love is potentially dying in your arms. The kwami aren't far behind, Plagg dragging the weak Tikki along until Adrien pauses for a brief moment to figure out a turn, where they take the opportunity to slip into his shirtpocket. It's a little tight, and they're pressed between Adrien and Marinette's bodies, but it'll do for now.

He stops in front of the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie, and even though the lights are dimmed and the door locked, he manages to lift Marinette a little higher and kick at the glass, screaming at the highest volume his lungs will allow. Nothing seems to work, and Chat Noir couldn't even break through bulletproof glass. Probably. He might have to test that sometime.

Plagg assumes that this is as good a time as any to take action, flittering up out of Adrien's pocket and disappearing in a small poof of black through the doorknob. It takes seconds for the lock to click and the door to pop open just barely enough for Adrien to nudge his foot in and pull it out for them all to slide through. The black cat kwami wordlessly stays behind when they enter, relocking the door and poking around until he finds a tiny bag of cookies under the counter behind the register, right where his Lady said they'd be.

Adrien's voice is hoarse and broken, every word like broken glass in his throat, but he doesn't care. "Mr. Dupain! Mrs. Cheng!" he calls out, making his way to the back and kneeling in front of the door leading to their residence. Marinette is still limp, but she's breathing, so he can't complain. He hears footsteps after a few moments, and he doesn't even realize he's stroking Marinette's back until he stops. The door swings open, revealing a wide-eyed Sabine brandishing what looks to be a metal pipe, with Tom behind her wielding a rather impressive-looking toy shield. They freeze when they look down to find Adrien holding their daughter in his arms, his eyes red and body shaking.

They don't ask unnecessary questions, mainly just "Did you see what happened to her?" ( _"No, Mr. Dupain, but I know someone who did. They said she fell from the roof."_ ) and "Was it an accident?" ( _"Yes, definitely, Mrs. Cheng, she wasn't pushed and didn't jump."_ ). After a few years of their daughter sneaking around and coming home with bumps and bruises and cuts that she can't properly explain, they've grown to realize there's more to Marinette Dupain-Cheng than they had thought. By then, though, her eighteenth birthday had come and gone, so there wasn't much they could do even if they _had_ known about their daughter's double life. They only made sure that she always knew she had her parents on her side and a home to call hers, even if she came home to it at three in the goddamn morning.

When the ambulance arrives (he regrets not calling it when he found her; it felt like ages waiting for it), the paramedics are told by Sabine that Adrien is her brother, that he will be riding with her and Marinette. They look from him to Sabine to Marinette, and he knows that the width of his eyes and lightness of his hair give him away even if his almost-celebrity status doesn't. They probably recognize his face from, well... everywhere. It makes him want to run outside and tear down every poster with his image.

"He looks more like his father," Sabine lies, and though everyone in the room knows it's false, the paramedics shrug and let him in.

While Tom and Sabine were mostly quiet, the paramedics were not. They had what seemed like thousands of questions, but none of them were actually directed at anyone in particular. They asked them as if they were simply talking to themselves, their main focus on Marinette. All were important, though, and easy enough for at least either Adrien or Sabine to answer. They didn't look from her once.

On the way to the hospital, Adrien learns several things about Marinette. She's allergic to iodine and sulfonamides. Once, when she was eight, she fell from her bed and got a nasty concussion, as well as a scar just to the outside of her left eye. Her blood type is O+. He knows that most of what he's learning isn't really necessary for him to know, but he vows to remember all of it.

He notices that it’s painful to watch them touch Marinette, sticking her with needles and feeling her bruises, running their fingers along the arm he can just _tell_ is broken. Her face doesn’t show any signs of pain, but then again, it doesn’t show any signs of anything. Adrien grimaces.

His thoughts are interrupted when Sabine nudges his arm, and he's brought back to reality.

"What exactly happened when she fell?" one of the paramedics asks a second time, locking eyes with him. He can tell she suspects him of having something to do with it, so he tries (and, unfortunately, fails), to keep his composure as he tells her what he "knows".

"You saw the akuma attack earlier, right? She must've been dazed afterwards. She was on top of the Predin Brat building and walked right off.”

“Was there anyone else there? Someone else that witnessed it?”

“No,” Adrien mumbles.

Sabine knows he’s lying; he can see it in her eyes. She also knows not to press it until they’re alone. Adrien thanks his lucky stars that Tom and Sabine were able to keep cool under stress. He'd have to learn a thing or two from them about it once all this is over.

The ambulance eventually pulls into the hospital's garage, and Marinette is wheeled from there to an examination room in the emergency department. They don’t let Adrien and Sabine see her, or even Tom when he arrives soon after with some of Marinette’s things. He figured it would be a good idea to at least grab some clothes and toiletries, considering a fall off of a roof isn’t something someone generally recovers from within a day. If she recovers. Adrien shakes his head as if reminding himself that that isn’t something he should be thinking.

Sabine looks at Adrien in the waiting room, her tone gentle but voice wavering. He can tell she’s near tears, knuckles white as her fingers tighten around her husband’s.  
“What _really_ happened to my daughter?”

He inhales.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this was originally posted a night or two ago with like, 900 words, but it was like 3 am and I didn't even look it over so it SUCKED ASS. I essentially rewrote the entire thing without, like, rewriting the entire thing. If that makes sense. Sorry.


End file.
